Ian Patrick writes full-time from his home in the United Kingdom. After working as an actor, director and teacher in theatre, film and television, he turned to an academic career and for some years published scholarly essays in a range of international academic journals.

'Not particularly page-turning stuff,' he says. 'Then one day the editor of a journal with a slightly more commercial and business-oriented focus, who had solicited an essay from me based on my scholarly research, asked me what my fee was. I had never considered the possibility that anyone might want to pay me for publishing anything I wrote, so I suggested that he pay me whatever he thought appropriate. He did so. After the resulting pleasant surprise I considered that there might be another dimension to writing.'

He believes that his years as an actor and director now play a modest part in his writing, as does his past experience in scholarly research. 'My fiction is based to the best of my ability on research and field work. I have to believe every word my fictive characters say, every action they undertake,' he says.

'I endeavour to make my fiction plausible and authentic. This requires exhaustive work and detailed research, and friends on occasion express surprise that it takes me at least a year of full-time work to write an eighty thousand word crime thriller. In my view, however, although it is clearly desirable to arrive at one's destination by bringing a work to publication, it is the journey that is the really exciting and enjoyable part of writing. I can only hope that readers will also enjoy the journey of discovering my characters and their foibles, their actions and their experiences. I hope, too, that they will inform me about and forgive me for any lapses in my work or any errors of detail.'